Norton said the complaint will be filed next week in Maricopa County against Yee, his primary rival Katherine Haley, and Haley's political consultants Kim Owens and Lisa James. Yee has not publicly addressed the allegations and did not respond to requests for comment.

"The foundation of her allegations is, she said that I was gay and had a boyfriend that wore a dress, and also told a former U.S. ambassador that I was having an affair with my personal assistant who worked for that U.S. ambassador, and that person actually is married with children," Norton said. "She decided to lie and engage in this terrible, horrible smear campaign against me."

Norton said the feud began after he entered the treasurer's race and criticized Yee's stewardship of the office, citing what he called subpar returns on state and local government investment pools of about 3.6% and a $68 million state audit. Rather than answering questions about the office's record, Norton alleges, Yee tried to recruit four candidates against him before Haley entered the primary.

"It cost $2 million. I mean, that campaign, the primary, cost $2 million. I funded a lot of that campaign," Norton said. "Part of the reason Republicans underperformed in Arizona is because Kimberly Yee is a selfish, terrible person, and she did this, ran this smear campaign, and it caused me to have to divert funds that could have gone to helping Republicans get elected to running a primary against someone that was totally unqualified to be state treasurer."

Norton said his team obtained video evidence of signature collectors circulating the rumors in the field. He said several prominent Republicans and a former U.S. ambassador will testify on his behalf, but he has not named them, and the video and audio evidence has not been released publicly ahead of the formal filing.

In contrast to his battle with Yee, Norton struck a conciliatory tone toward Mansour, saying he called the newly elected treasurer to offer congratulations and buy him a drink after an "above the belt" race.

The legal showdown marks familiar territory for Norton, founder of vehicle warranty company CarGuard, who waged a similar fight after his 2022 primary defeat to U.S. Rep. David Schweikert in Arizona's 1st Congressional District. In that 31-page defamation lawsuit filed in Maricopa County Superior Court, Norton accused Schweikert and his consultants of running an anonymous Twitter account that used lipstick, high heels and a peach emoji to falsely imply Norton was in a sadomasochistic gay relationship. Schweikert ultimately settled the case, but Norton insisted Yee will not get the same resolution.

"I did this in 2022. David Schweikert accused one of my really good friends of engaging in a vulgar sex act, and I sued him and he wrote me a check," Norton said. "Politicians should be running on issues. We should be running on policies. We should be running on our records. We should not be talking about people's sex lives. This is wrong. It's despicable. This time I will not be settling — it will go to trial and she will lose."

Norton said he is stepping away from seeking elective office to return to private business, but warned Yee that any future political campaign of hers will face his direct opposition.

"I told her in a text message that if she ever decides to try to run, I don't care if she runs for school board, I will oppose her campaign," Norton said. "I will contribute whatever resources are necessary to expose her record to the people so she never, ever is elected to office anywhere, ever again."